Villagers mourn family; Guatemala quake toll at 52

A man helps carry a coffin during the funeral procession for 10 members of the Vasquez family in San Cristobal Cucho, Guatemala, Nov. 9, 2012. The family died when a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck on Wednesday, collapsing their home and burying them, including a 4-year-old child, in the rubble.

Associated Press reports — The 10 members of the Vasquez family were found together under the rubble of the rock quarry that had been their livelihood, some in a desperate final embrace, others clinging to the faintest of dying pulses.

As Guatemala tried to recover Thursday from a 7.4-magnitude quake, the country mourned a disaster that killed at least 52 people; left thousands of others without homes, electricity or water; and emotionally devastated one small town by wiping out almost an entire family seeing the first signs of success in a tireless effort to claw itself out of poverty.

Neighbors filed past 10 wooden caskets lined up in two rows in the Vasquez living room, remembering a family reduced to a single survivor, the eldest son about to graduate with an accounting degree. Full story…

Moises Castillo / AP

People carry the coffins with the remains of 10 members of the Vasquez family in San Cristobal Cucho, Guatemala, Nov. 9.

Jorge Dan Lopez / Reuters

A woman reacts as she looks into the coffin of one of the 10 members of the Vasquez Gomez family, who died during the earthquake that struck on Wednesday, in the cemetery of San Cristobal Cucho, Guatemala, Nov. 9. Rescue workers on Thursday carted out dead bodies found under rubble in the aftermath of Guatemala's most powerful earthquake in decades, while others cleared wrecked cars and collapsed buildings as they searched for survivors.

Moises Castillo / AP

Berta Miguelina Miranda holds flowers during the funeral procession for the Vasquez family in San Cristobal Cucho, Guatemala, Nov. 9.